Regional News

We’ll recapitalise uniBank — Shareholders

Date: Jul 23 , 2018 , 08:50

BY: Victor Kwawukume

Category: Business News

Dr Kwabena Duffuor

Dr Kwabena Duffour, a shareholder of uniBank Ghana Limited, has, on behalf of the shareholders of the bank, reaffirmed their commitment to recapitalise the bank to address both the solvency and liquidity challenges of the financial institution.

“We are also ready to progress discussions on the appropriate structure to handle and leverage the assets of the bank registered with the name of the holder, House of Duffuor Assets (HODA)”, a letter signed by Dr Duffour in response to an earlier one written by KPMG said.

In response to the KPMG letter the shareholders, led by Dr Duffour, affirmed their readiness to accept one of the three strategic options to save the bank, as presented by the official administrator (OA) of the bank, KPMG, to the government.

The letter from the KPMG, who were appointed the offcial administator by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) put the total deficit of uniBank at 4.9 billion.

The shareholders accepted the options of racaptalising uniBank.

Three options

The three options are entitled, ‘Good Banks/Bad Banks’, ‘Recapitalisation by existing shareholders with or without new shareholders’ and ‘Recapitalisation by new shareholders’.

The BoG, effective March 20 this year, appointed KPMG as OA of UniBank to assume managerial control of the bank.

The powers, functions and responsibilities of the shareholders, directors and key management were effectively suspended with the appointment of the OA.

Prior to the shareholders forwarding this document to OA, KPMG informed the existing shareholders that there existed a gap of GH¢4.9 billion required to address both insolvency and liquidity challenges of the bank.

On July 12, 2018, Dr Duffour, who is a former Minister of Finance, former Governor of the Bank of Ghana and a shareholder of uniBank, signed letter to KPMG expressing his and the shareholders’ commitment to re-capitalise the uniBank.

Evidence of payment ability

The shareholders provided evidence of the payment of the first tranche of USD$200 million .

He also indicated that “shareholders remain committed to injecting another tranche of GH¢1 billion by the end of September,” this year.

In the letter, Dr Duffour also mentioned that the uniBank “retains beneficial ownership of the assets registered in the name of HODA Properties”.

He said the assets “totalling GH¢4.4 billion, shall be warehoused in a trust to be held for the bank and appropriately leveraged to raise and inject funding into the bank”.

Last Friday, a list of properties belonging to the HODA Group was posted on some social media platforms, where it was alleged that those properties had been confiscated.

But sources close to the shareholder denied knowledge of such properties and their alleged confiscation.

“We know our assets and their values,” the source said.

Further assurances

“The shareholders are committing these funds and assets to ensure that this will result in a well-capitalised, liquid and solvent bank and believe the official administrator will come up with a model in achieving this objective,” the letter said.

Dr Duffour also assured the OA that the shareholders “intend to engage a first class international bank as a strategic partner of the bank” saying the strategic partner will play a major role in the future management of the bank”.

“It is the utmost desire of the shareholders to work in close collaboration with the official administrator by providing the necessary funding and support that will protect the depositor-interest and ensure the future prosperity of the bank,” the letter affirmed.